Stopping splashing in Headingley centre

A resident recently drew our attention to dips in the road surface on the junction between North Lane and the Otley Road. When it rains, they fill up with water, causing pedestrians waiting at the crossing to get splashed as cars go round the corner.

North Lane junction 2

North Lane junction 1

We have raised the issue with the Highways department, who agreed that repairs are needed here. They have undertaken to carry them out within the next three months. It’s good to know that we’re helping to save pedestrians in Headingley from a splashing!

 

Leeds flooding and travel disruption

People all over West Yorkshire have experienced terrible flooding over the past twenty-four hours, bringing a grim end to their Christmas festivities. The water seems to have peaked now, but many areas of Leeds are still flooded, and road and rail transport are both badly disrupted.

The best advice is not to travel if you can avoid it. In particular, both West Yorkshire Police and the Environment Agency have advised drivers not to attempt to drive through flood water. Just 30cm of water is enough to float a car, causing a serious danger to life.

If you do need to travel, though, you can see a map of local road closures here. Road closures are marked with purple icons containing a red flag on a black background. You can also get up-to-date information from @LeedsTravelInfo on Twitter. Affected roads currently include:

  • Swinnow Road slip road off Stanningley By Pass
  • Wellington Street between Northern Street and Kirkstall Road
  • Kirkstall Road between Woodside View and Studio Road
  • East Street from Neptune Street to Crown Point Road
  • Bridge Road between Commercial Road / Wyther Lane / Broad Lane / Leeds and Bradford Road

For rail travel, you can see a list of affected services here. Affected lines include:

  • Leeds to York via Harrogate
  • Leeds to Skipton / Bradford Forster Square / Ilkley
  • Leeds to Carlisle / Morecambe
  • Manchester Victoria to Leeds

Our thoughts are with everyone affected, and we hope you are staying safe and dry as much as possible.

Headingley Christmas bin collections

Headingley residents might like to know about the special arrangements for bin collections in Leeds over Christmas and the New Year. This year, the council will not be sending out letters to notify residents of the changes, so please use the ‘share’ buttons at the bottom of this post to help make sure that your friends and neighbours are aware.

Christmas bin collection dates for Headingley Leeds 2015Remember that you can check your bin collection dates at any time of year by entering your postcode here. You can also print out a personal bin collection calendar.

Focus stories: Labour’s bin shame

Local Liberal Democrat campaigner, Penny Goodman, is calling on Leeds Labour to sort out the bins in Headingley after receiving complaints from residents in the Ash Road area that the new opt-in recycling scheme, brought in by the Labour Councillors, is not working.

Green bin collections were stopped and residents who wished to sort their recycling were told that they could request recycling bags. But on Chapel Street the old green bins have been left abandoned, blocking the pavement and causing problems for people with disabilities and parents with pushchairs. Some residents have also not received recycling bags despite requesting them several times.

Bins blocking the pavement in Chapel Street

Bins blocking the pavement in Chapel Street

Labour-run Leeds City Council is letting Headingley down by not ensuring that the new scheme is implemented properly across the whole of the pilot area.

Local residents have also been telling us that they would like to see doorstep glass and food waste recycling in their area. Liberal Democrat Councillors in other parts of the City implemented a successful doorstep food waste recycling pilot, which we want to see rolled out across Leeds.

Update: after publishing this story in our Focus leaflet, we reported the bin problems in Chapel Street to the Environment and Housing team, and were told that this street is not part of the Ash Road opt-in recycling pilot after all. Yet the local residents we spoke to believed that they were included in the pilot, and the suspension of their regular green bin collections suggests their bin collection teams thought so too. So the real problem here is poor communication around the pilot scheme, leading to residents and collection teams believing one thing and Environment and Housing believing another.

Working hard for better broadband

When we are out on the doorsteps in Headingley and Hyde Park, we often hear complaints from local residents about poor broadband connections. The providers offer super-fast speeds when people sign their contracts, but for hundreds of customers in Headingley and Hyde Park the reality is broadband that’s painfully slow, or even drops out altogether.

We don’t think people should be paying for something they aren’t getting, so we have launched a petition calling on the broadband providers to speed it up! It’s their responsibility to deliver what they promised – and if their infrastructure isn’t good enough to support the number of customers they have, they need to upgrade it.

We want to prove to the broadband providers just how many of their customers are feeling let down by this, so we have been out collecting signatures over the last few weeks – on the door-steps, in Leeds University Union and by phone. Everywhere, people have confirmed what we already thought – that this is a problem for almost everyone in our area; not just a few isolated households.

But to really make the broadband providers sit up and take notice, we still need more signatures. So if you live in the Headingley and Hyde Park area and have a slow broadband connection, please sign our petition today! Then share the link with your friends so that they can have their say too.

Here are some pictures from our campaign so far:

Collecting signatures on the door-steps.

Collecting signatures on the door-steps.

Our Leeds University Union stall.

Our Leeds University Union stall.

Speaking to people on the phones.

Speaking to people on the phones.

Five things the Lib Dems want to see in the Spending Review

Today, George Osborne will make his autumn statement. We don’t know yet what it will contain, but it’s pretty clear that it will include further severe cuts to the welfare budget.

This morning, Tim Farron has written for the Huffington Post about how the Liberal Democrats would approach this year’s spending review, including five things we would like to see in the autumn statement:

  1. £250million of additional spending on mental health
  2. Stopping the Tax Credit cuts
  3. Investment in enterprise
  4. A real commitment to investment in new infrastructure
  5. Proper analysis of the impact

You can read Tim’s full article here.

Focus stories: Elinor Lupton needs a clean up

Penny Goodman and the local Liberal Democrat team are asking Wetherspoons, the new owners of the Elinor Lupton Centre, to clean up the building.

This grade 2 listing building is covered in graffiti and is currently an eyesore rather than a landmark Headingley residents can be proud of.

The local Liberal Democrat team has supported proposals by Leeds Music Hub to use the building as a music and arts space and has expressed concern at it being turned into a pub.

Elinor Lupton 2

Focus stories: cleaning up our area

Local Liberal Democrat campaigner, Penny Goodman, is taking action to clean up our area!

Penny has successfully got graffiti cleared up in a number of streets, including Bennett Road and Alma Road. And thanks to her quick action, Penny has secured a new litter bin at the entrance to the Lupton Residences.

The local Liberal Democrat team also took action to get the rubbish cleared up from around the recycling bins at the Headingley Taps.

Why aren’t Headingley’s Labour Councillors tacking these issues?

Local residents know that Penny and the Lib Dems get things done in our area. If you spot any issues, please contact us.